The Mythic Dungeon International West Cup #2 Recap

The second cup of the Mythic Dungeon International's Western Region wrapped up this past weekend where we saw six of the original eight teams from Cup #1 return to compete. A testament to these team's skill and commitment we saw minor changes in the top of the seeding as Abrakeydabra took the 2nd seed from Method NA. Two new teams, both from NA, made their MDI debut with Eligible Gamerdads and LEECH Boys making for the Round of 8 games to be entirely NA versus EU.

This article will dive into the HIGHS and LOWS of the tournament with plenty of clips to show you what to do or not to do in your next Mythic+ run!

EU showed their dominance in the early brackets with 3 out of 4 European teams winning their first series' and Team Puolukka dropping to the lower bracket with the NA teams. Before Fourty K took their first series against Learn to Fly they lost their first game against the NA regulars in Atal'dazar where they highlighted their knowledge of the dungeon environment to use to their advantage.

NA Snaps Back

Snap effects have been a regular of the MDI experience this season as teams use specific parts of the dungeon to "snap" or teleport mobs instantly to the target's location rather than draw them in normally. This occurs as the mobs are unable to find a path to walk across the environment to reach the player, so as a result they turn to teleporting to their target's location so that they can attack it. In this example, Glickz from Learn to Fly on the right side of the clip above jumps onto a specific piece of the bridge in Atal'dazar.

He dismounts, then both rogues cast Trucchi del Mestiere onto him and each attack a pack of Saurids while he attacks a 3rd pack of Saurids on his own. Since he used a ranged attack in Lancio Eroico and all threat that the rogues generated was directed to him, he was able to stack up every raptor in seconds without threat of their usual leaps. Then both rogues and the monk were able to stand at max range from melee (made easier by Outlaw's Assalti Acrobatici passive) to kill off the Saurids, stack the Rosso Sangue puddles, and quickly move the surviving raptors out of any Rosso Sangue puddles before they could heal.

Path-less Locations

Other locations in dungeons have similar pathing issues that allow for mob abilities to be ignored. In this clip from the same run, Edelweiss of Learn to Fly uses Carica Selvaggia while in Travel Form to land on a piece of floor above the stairs of Sacerdotessa Alun'za's room. While she stands there, the rest of the party corrals all enemies and stacks up at the top of said stairs. The Forzuto Dazar'ai's Assalto Impietoso only targets enemies outside of its melee range. So while a healer could stand out at range and dodge the charge whenever it comes up, they can instead use the terrain to their advantage to keep the mob in melee at all times where it will be most susceptible to cleave damage and die more evenly with all other mobs.

Method EU Starting Strong

Going into the tourrnament Method EU had yet to drop a series, much less a single dungeon as they once again clinched the #1 seed. After quickly defeating the #8 seed in Eligible Gamerdads they tore through Fourty K sending them to the lower bracket off the back of an excellent and ambitious skip using Fondersi nelle Ombre from Night Elves.

Many teams have performed similar skips in Shrine of the Storm, but this tournament has been plagued by failed or partially botched attempts at this. After Method EU activated their 2nd wave of Mietitura by hitting 40% of enemy forces killed, they all utilized their Pozione del Piè Veloce to increase their movement speed so they could run past the mini-boss Incisore di Rune Sorn standing in their path. Naowh, the tank, then charges into the next enemy pack after Incisore di Rune Sorn and pauses to aggro the Guardiano Elementale and bring it to him. This is very significant as it allows his teammates to run ahead and get further distance away from the Guardiano Elementale. This mob has a large aggro radius and is able to see through stealth, often referred to as "truesight", so Naowh's patience and Meere's assist with Circolo di Pace keeps all of those enemies at a distance so that the team can collectively drop combat and move on through the dungeon.

Missing Magic

After an early wipe spoiled Abrakeydabra's chance at beating Method NA in the Upper bracket, the team quickly overcame their errors to sweep Gamerdads out of the tournament and move on to a revitalized Fourty K. Abra's opponents had previously placed 7th/8th in West Cup #1 but looked very polished as they defeated Learn to Fly and Puolukka, the latter of which had placed 4th in the tournament the previous week. Singular wipes like the one featured here detail how critical every player's job is on the team when it comes to properly locking down enemies.

Team Abra, featured on the left screen, starts pulling a very similar pull to their opponents in the Motherlode. While clumping all enemies together, markers are quickly placed on the enemies to denote player assignments. Commonly, automarking addons or weakauras are used to setup responsibilities for interrupts or crowd control on enemies. One player is assigned a marker and it is their responsibility to shut it down as consistently as possible. Abra pulls many mobs together but the largest threats are the 2 Assassino Assoldato that are brought in. As these mobs move in they complete their cast of Lame Tossiche causing their subsequent casts of Grandinata di Dardi to apply stacking poison debuffs with every hit on the party. This brings the party down within seconds and occurs from a lack of focus on the Orange or Circle marked Assassino Assoldato.

While Ashine dies to the Spruzzatore Ghiacciato cast from the Mercante di Rinfreschi, and Divine briefly lives through the 9 stack DoT of Lame Tossiche, the pull was destroyed by the Assassino Assoldato's blade because of how much damage it caused to the entire party making it impossible for Elserat to stabilize the team. Abra has been an excellent team through these first two weeks of the tournament, but this week some critical errors and connection issues led to an underwhelming performance from the MDI veterans as they placed 4th. With one more West cup remaining, these players are very favorably positioned to qualify for LAN, but are still missing a bit of magic that will make them champions.

Method NA's Rise and Fall

Method NA, since its inception in last year's MDI has always had a heavy spotlight shined on them. Featuring multiple popular streamers in JB, Shakib and Lightee they're joined by Nerf and former Heroes Pro Yoda. In my ways, it seems that this pressure came to bear down on the team as they faced off against their EU rival. Tol Dagor in the first Western Cup was a particular sore spot for this team, but when they met their opponents within those prison walls, they were well prepared for action. Rethinking how they handled the 2nd boss Jes Ululis, they hid inside his brother Bobby Howlis's cell to kill the boss and avoid unnecessary movement. This also prevented Bobby Howlis from running around and casting his Paura Ululante where the entire team would be forced to Line of Sight or one melee would have to run out to kick him. From that point, they had a solid lead ahead of their EU counterparts and looked to be ready to hand EU their first loss of the season.

Tol Dagor's cannons are insanely effective in this instance, so much so that Method NA opted to hold their tank and monk dps back while JB and both rogues killed multiple mobs by themselves with the cannon. This created the space the team needed, to grab a massive amount of mobs from the Officer's Quarters and pile all of them downrange from the cannon. This pull was more dangerous and risky than their EU competitor, granting them a significant time advantage as they approached the last boss.

Leading us to the heartbreaking wipe. Had there been no death, Method NA was poised to crush EU's time and finally take a game off of the undefeated and defending champions. JB's death cost the Tol Dagor run, but Method EU returned with errors of their own on Game 2 in Atal'dazar leading NA to break EU's perfect run. This caused the series to go to Game 3 where one wipe decided the game and the series.

Method EU had a number of deaths in their Waycrest run that did not wipe them, but caused a severe deficit on their timer. While they finished the dungeon first, Method NA had over half a minute to kill the last of the trash with Bloodlust to finish the dungeon and secure their spot in the Grand Final. While dealing with the pack, the Survivalista Impazzito were separated from the Tiratore Frenetico who cannot be interrupted and are only moved through displacement tools or Line of Sight. In order to stack the mobs back together, Nerf moved back into the Tiratore Frenetico in between many Trappola di Schegges that were placed down by the Survivalista Impazzito. They disappear after a short time but deal heavy damage to players that stand in them.

By dodging the traps, JB also moved closer into melee range, then JB is where the Survivalista Impazzito cast their Trappola Congelante followed by both casting Serpente Tagliente at the same time. JB was caught in the freezing trap while both Serpente Tagliente casts went uninterrupted by the rest of the party turning a positional mistake from the healer into a disastrous wipe leading Method EU to advance.

The Grand (Wipe) Finals

After a tight Underrot run, Method EU held a 1-0 lead over NA as the Grand Finals led us to The Motherlode! With the Sciame affix present in this dungeon teams require larger amounts of Enemy Forces percentage in order to fulfill the instance requirements. As a result, both teams opted to kill trash from the often-skipped Research and Development Wing. These mobs are often skipped primarily due to many unique enemies, the Genio della S.P.R. & Co., the Assistente Inetto and the Alchimista della S.P.R. & Co..

The Genio della S.P.R. & Co.'s Aspirazione Globulo makes it difficult to quickly kill and it is unable to be interrupted from any of its abilities. As Method EU killed the 2nd boss and rode down into this final wing they were unable to kill off all of the enemies before Naowh was struck by multiple Composto Caustico from the Alchimista della S.P.R. & Co.s. EU's Zaelia utilized a common trick with Vortice di Ursol and Tifone to place the vortex down, push mobs out of it and then let the vortex suck them back in, cancelling any casts for a brief time. Unfortunately, this also resets their swing timers (if brought out of melee range) and their cast timers, leading to multiple melee strikes and casts of Composto Caustico hitting the tank, killing him instantly from ~45% HP. Circolo di Pace from Meere's comes down shortly after Naowh's death, suggesting that it likely was available to interrupt those casters earlier to keep the tank alive. It suggests a miscommunication of crowd control uses, causing players to burn their interrupt or other crowd control abilities at inopportune moments likely overlapping with other players.

Once he died, players instantly moved away to try to prolong the pull and survive until Naowh could return and stabilize the pull. The Assistente Inetto prevent this however, as their Siero della Trasfigurazione ability fully heals them and transforms them into a new mob that deals heavy magic damage to the target through Morso Putrescente. Once Naowh returns, many of these mobs are transformed and pandemonium breaks out as players start running into mines or are killed off by the now-healed enemies.

NA's last stand

With the Grand Finals coming down to a Game 3, NA and EU started Temple of Sethraliss with some minor variations on this fairly linear dungeon. Method EU opted to kill more enemy forces early on, while Method NA pushed for more enemies later in the dungeon. As a result, NA was killing the first two bosses at a faster rate than their opponents and looking in a powerful position to take the cup. As they entered Galvazzt's room however, they committed some minor errors causing their lead to evaporate.

From this point. Method EU's frontloaded trash route kicked into high gear and they turned a deficit into a solid lead over NA putting them a full phase ahead on the final boss the Avatar di Sethraliss before the sealed their victory and won their second MDI Cup with a huge sum of points for LAN qualification.

Standings and Stand Outs

With Method EU sealing their second straight cup victory they guarantee their LAN qualification for the summer. While they are consistently the team to beat, this tournament highlighted that they are indeed human and can make critical errors like anyone else. Method NA on paper had a flat performance, getting right back to where they were in the previous week, but as you look closer this team grew considerably and played up to Method EU on multiple occasions. At this point they still struggle to break away from the 2nd place curse that has developed over the previous year, if they can shake that off and minimize some of the errors highlighted throughout this article they definitely have the potential to be a championship team.

Abrakeydabra had some connection issues throughout the tournament and that may have throw them off as they seemed to be missing something this tournament and fell to a rising Fourty K the latter of which defied many expectations, especially on our casting desk. The 3rd best EU team had a massive improvement from Week 1 where they were quickly eliminated from the tournament. In week 2, they obliterated Puolukka, who continues to be plagued by inconsistency, and firmly stood out as a team to watch. The real question for 4K is no longer whether they have the strength to press on through adversity but rather how high is their peak? 4K went from 7th/8th place to 3rd place in the course of 2 weeks, vastly improving their chances of qualifying for LAN. If they put on an even stronger performance in Week 3, does this make them a team to watch come the summer LAN?

We will continue to keep an eye on them and all of the competing teams in the Mythic Dungeon International. The final Western Cup will be April 27-28th at 11am Eastern where we will see if Method EU can pull off a 3-peat, if NA can overcome their 2nd place blues, if Abra can find their magic, if Pulukka can bounce back and how high can 4k climb.

Before we get to answer those questions, we will be seeing the East's 2nd weekend Cup this weekend starting at 8pm Eastern. Team D is the defending champions and they comprise multiple 2018 MDI veterans. Their rivals Battle for Champion came close to overcoming them but were unable to pull through as Team D won their rematch in the Grand Finals to take the first cup.